Progressive Wednesday

156.

On Wednesday May 30, we wrote about the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Since that day 156 servicemen and servicewomen have lost their lives.

So what can you do?

We'd like you to take three minutes out of your day and call your representative in Congress. They've only got a two-year shelf-life so you're guaranteed that they'll be a little more concerned about losing their sweet gig than your Senators. If you're not sure who your representative is, first go to the U.S. Postal Service to find your full 9-digit zip code, then head on over to Project Vote Smart and find out the name of your lucky representative. If you click on their name, you'll find their contact information.

And what would we like you to tell them? Here’s a little script to make your life that much easier:

I'm a registered voter in Representative [Congressperson's Last Name] district. Every day [he/she] doesn’t introduce or sign onto legislation mandating a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, Representative [Congressperson's Last Name] is telling me overtly, not tacitly, that [he/she] approves of our occupation of Iraq. This was a so-called “war– built on lies and waged without regard for innocent lives with a staggering price tag to taxpayers like me. If Representative [Congressperson's Last Name] hopes to receive my vote in two years, [he/she] will promptly propose new legislation that will de-authorize our obscene occupation of Iraq. Congress authorized the invasion under the War Powers Act and that authorization can be revoked. Representative [Congressperson's Name] should not wait and let more American soldiers and innocent Iraqis die.

That’s it. That’s one thing we can all do to try to bring our valiant and victimized troops home.

“The only alternative to coexistence is co-destruction.”

We recently expressed our concerns about the potential for a war in Iran – the feds seem to be drumming it up with their “all options on the table” language about what they’d do to prevent Iran from creating nuclear weapons. (If you haven’t already, please join us and sign this petition from StopIranWar.com, which is sponsored by VoteVets.org and Wesley Clark.) And we’ve also addressed our desire for the Congress to de-authorize the occupation of Iraq. So what do the two have to do with each other? We’re terrified of what would happen, both there and here, if we were to, in any way, attack another sovereign nation when we’re unprovoked, creating another “war” of choice through preemptive strikes.

This one of the reasons we’ve already touted the efforts of groups like Iraq Veterans Against the War: they know, firsthand, what’s going on in Iraq; we, the prime-time-news-viewing public, do not. So we were impressed by this kind of powerful, in-your-face performance, c/o the Utne Reader:

Four years after the US invaded Iraq, a group of the war’s veterans invaded the streets of New York. In a Memorial Day exercise, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) donned their gear and reenacted military scenarios commonplace in the streets of Iraq. Using their hands as rifles, they shouted commands and crept around corners. Some scoured the streets for “Iraqi citizens,” forcing them to the ground, cuffing, and hooding them.

And here’s the video of the performance — imagine if this actually happened in the United States, imagine how you’d feel:

.

.

And here’s our modest two-part proposal:

1. Let’s stop the Iran War in it’s horrific tracks. We’re going to beat this one home, so you might as well go sign the petition pronto. And please consider sending this letter to your members of Congress. Combined, you’ll spend about 120 seconds. That seems like a commercial break well spent.
2. Check your wallet or purse. Do you have a fiver? Good. Let’s donate that Lincoln, that half of a movie, that combo McMeal — let’s donate those bucks to Iraq Veterans Against the War. They’ll put it to good use. Trust us.

- – - – -

Editor’s Note, Part I: To see the videos we’ve previously recommended to better understand what our troops are going through, click here and here.

.

Editor’s Note, Part II: The title of this entry comes to us from Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of India. He was mentored by Mahatma Gandhi.

This Wednesday: Memorial Day Everyday

Problem:

Yes, yes, yes, dear readers, I realize that Memorial Day was “celebrated” on Monday, but there’s two things to consider: first, Memorial Day is actually today, May 30, we just “observed” it on Monday; second, it seems odd to us that we’d remember those who’ve died in the name of our country for only 24 hours, if that. The majority of us, yours truly included, spent the vacation day gobbling bratwurst and watching baseball on the idiot box.

So, this Wednesday, this Memorial Day Wednesday, we’re going to do something for the troops so they needn’t just be in our memories.

But that’s not the biggest problem we’re facing today. Today, we’re facing a continuation of our senseless occupation of Iraq. On Friday, May 25, I realized, once again, why I belong to no political party: politicians aren’t listening to the people, the 9/11 Commission, the Iraq Study Group, or the rest of the free and not-so-free world. The Democratically controlled Congress and the Republican president just agreed to legislation to continue funding our occupation of Iraq with no end in sight (I suppose “never” is technically a time, but it’s rather far off).

An occupation can only end two ways: annexation or withdrawal. Since we’d rather have Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia as the 51st state, we’re calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

Opponents of a troop withdrawal, the few that remain, may say that to do so will destabilize the region. I’m fairly certain — if there’s any accuracy to the news we’re streamed every day — that the region is pretty well destabilized. I’m fairly certain that those destabilizing the region either despise us, fear us, or are us. But in none of those cases does that mean the Iraqis want to listen to us, particularly if what they’re hearing is mortar shells and machine guns and violent knocks on their doors. Opponents of withdrawal (which I suppose means they want to add Iraq as a state) also spew things like: “If we don’t fight the terrorists there, we’ll fight them here.” Seeing as the vast majority of terrorists don’t live in Iraq, I’m pretty sure our 160,000 troops in that country aren’t actually not fighting many of the world’s terrorists.

Let’s get something straight and straighten out our diction: we are not mired in a “civil war.” We are mired in an occupation of a sovereign country, a country of approximately 27,500,000 people. And we’ve slaughtered at least 64,333 of those civilians[1] for no ties to 9/11, for no ties to weapons of mass destruction, for no semblance of a peaceful democracy.

And the potential blowback from our occupation is rather terrifying. Blowback — not our freedoms, not our wealth, not our (somewhat) equal treatment of women, and not even our McRestaurants — caused 9/11. If we want peace on our land and on others, the sooner we withdraw, the better. We want the world community to respect us, and this is best achieved through a good example (and not imposing), through peace, through fair trade, through humanitarian missions and actions.

So let�s let logic rule this Memorial Day Wednesday. It’s time that we at Progressive Wednesday — our valiant staff and our dedicated readers — take a stand.

.

Make Progress:

3,454 American troops have died because of our occupation of Iraq. And here’s another sobering factoid: “In the period from Memorial Day 2006 through Saturday, 980 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq, compared to 807 deaths in the previous year.”

On top of that ugly fact — with 114 American casualties in Iraq this month, May 2007 becomes the third deadliest month since the occupation began, and the highest total deaths since November 2004. In other words, our time in Iraq is getting worse.

So our goal this here Wednesday is simple: let us help bring an end to this mess as soon as possible, and let us properly remember those who’ve fought in our name. Can we? We can. Enough said.

Let’s put away the ketchup and mustard, let’s put the volleyball nets back in the shed, let’s put the kids to bed, and let’s do something. Let us all — united together by the name of our country and our shared values — do something powerfully patriotic.

• Salute
• Watch
• Read
• Sign
• End

[1] And at least hundreds of these deaths could have been avoided. But we insisted on using cluster munitions, and “50 strikes on top Iraqi leaders failed to kill any of the intended targets.”

Memorial Day Everyday: Salute

Salute:

We believe the best tribute to our sisters and brothers — those soldiers who’ve served and lived and those we, as a country, have laid to rest — is to help end the occupation of Iraq. As such, we’d like to point you to a fantastic organization trying to do just that: Iraq Veterans Against the War. If you want to help convince the paltry number of those around who think we should stick it out in Iraq with no end in sight, check out IVAW’s webpage for information — they outline it in a pithy and powerful way.

The IVAW calls for the following:

• Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq;
• Reparations for the destruction and corporate pillaging of Iraq so that Iraqi people can control their own lives and future; and
• Full benefits, adequate health care (including mental health), and other supports for returning servicemen and women.

We�re not sure if we could agree more. And what does the IVAW do? Four biggies include:

1. Educating the public about the occupation of Iraq through speaking engagements and by contacting the media.
2. Speaking to classrooms about the realities of being a soldier.
3. Supporting “Conscientious Objectors and others facing military prosecution for their refusal to fight.”
4. Pushing for “full funding for the Veterans Administration, and full quality health treatment (including mental health) and benefits for veterans when they return from duty.”

We still haven’t heard anything to disagree with. There are plenty of other organizations fighting to end this occupation. But we think this one has more umph than some of the others. So, here’s the deal: just give five. That’s it. Just give five measly smackers to a fantastic organization doing what those of us without military service can’t do: tell the absolute truth about war. Give by clicking this sentence.

On behalf of our troops, thank you in advance.

“We haven’t enough words to speak of war.”

One of my new favorite poets is Brian Turner, an Iraq War vet whose book Here, Bullet has been toasted with more than a handful of awards and honors. Turner graduated from the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Oregon and then enlisted in the Army, where he spent the next seven years. Why? Well, in his own words: “If we could drink a bottle of vodka and talk about this until dawn, I might be able to answer that particular question.” Like most difficult questions, there’s no simple answer, and I believe his poetry is evidence of that. There aren’t simple ways to describe warfare, so the medium of poetry, with its textures and multiple levels of meaning, seems an ideal genre to use when writing about something equal parts horrifying and complex.

Here’s a sample, the title poem from this this brave collection, courtesy of Boing Boing:

*

Here, Bullet

If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta’s opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you’ve started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel’s cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue’s explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.

*

If that doesn’t hit you to the core, I’m not sure what poetry will. Poems in the book vary in topic (wounded solidiers, suicide bombings, and, of course, eulogy, amongst several others) and point of view (he thoughtfully considers the perspective of Iraqis).

In his poem “Night in Blue,” Turner writes: “I have no words to speak of war.” When asked about the line, Turner had this to say:

I realize that the line “I have no words to speak of war” may appear coy on a literary surface. However, the line must be said. I felt I owed that to those who saw and experienced war in a much more devastating way. Some lost their homes. Some lost their family. Some lost limbs or came back to America with horror embedded within them. I was fortunate. Also, there are millions of stories needing to be witnessed and told. More needs to be said. Perhaps an alternate line might have read: We haven't enough words to speak of war.

We don’t. But this book is a start, it’s a start.

To order the book, simply click on the book cover above. To read more samples of the poetry in the book, click here or here. To learn more about Mr. Turner, click here, here, or here (the latter includes video). To listen to Turner read his work, click here or here.

To learn more about Progressive Wednesday, just click here, here, or here.